The present invention relates to a numerical control apparatus to control a machine tool and robot in accordance with numerical data.
Recently, in accordance with the progress of computers and peripheral equipment, the shape data is used when tool moving command data is generated in a machine tool. Examples of using the shape data are described as follows. In the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. Hei 3-1201 and Hei 3-46007, there is disclosed a system in which the shape of a workpiece and the moving command data of a tool are inputted, and the changed shape of the workpiece is displayed in accordance with the moving command data of the tool, so that the moving data of the tool can be confirmed. Also, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 7-182019, there is disclosed a system in which consideration is given to a restoration of the shape of the workpiece before machining.
In the above NC information making system incorporated into the conventional numerical control apparatus, the shape data is utilized, however, there is provided no system in which the three-dimensional shape to be machined is inputted and the tool moving command data is directly generated by this three-dimensional shape to be machined.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the above problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a numerical control apparatus capable of directly generating the tool moving command data by the three-dimensional shape of a workpiece to be machined.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus in which the inputted numerical data is decoded, each section of the numerical control apparatus is controlled in accordance with the result of decoding, and a workpiece is machined according to the numerical data, comprising: a shape inputting means for inputting a three-dimensional shape to be machined; a workpiece shape setting means for setting the shape of a workpiece; a work region extracting means for extracting a work region by the three-dimensional shape to be machined inputted by the shape inputting means and by the shape of the workpiece which has been set by the workpiece shape setting means; a work region dividing means for dividing the work region extracted by the work region extracting means; a work order setting means for setting the order of machining the work regions divided by the work region dividing means; a work information inputting means for inputting the work information of each work region; and a tool moving command data generating means for generating the tool moving command data by the order of machining in each work region and the work information.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, the work region dividing means including a work region work characteristic dividing means for dividing the work region into a spot work, a contour work and a region work in accordance with the characteristic of the work region.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, the work region dividing means including: a work region fractionalizing means for fractionalizing the work region by the characteristic of the three-dimensional work shape inputted by the shape inputting means; and a region combining means for arbitrarily combining the regions divided by the work region fractionalizing means.
According to the forth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, wherein the work region fractionalizing means extends the surfaces composing the three-dimensional work shape inputted by the shape inputting means and divides the work region when the extended surface interfering with the work region extracted by the work region extracting means is used as a boundary.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, the work region dividing means including a work region arbitrarily dividing means for arbitrarily dividing the work region.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, the work region dividing means including a work region arbitrarily dividing means for arbitrarily dividing the work region in accordance with the shape of the work region.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, the work region arbitrarily dividing means including: a plane generating means for generating a plane; a plane operating means for arbitrarily moving and turning a plane generated by the plane generating means; and a dividing means for dividing the work region when the plane which has been set by the plane generating means and the plane operating means is used as a boundary.
According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, the
work region arbitrarily dividing means including: a rectangular parallelepiped generating means for generating a rectangular parallelepiped; a rectangular parallelepiped operating means for arbitrarily moving and turning the rectangular parallelepiped generated by the rectangular parallelepiped generating means; a common section calculating means for calculating a common section between the rectangular parallelepiped which has been set by the rectangular parallelepiped operating means and the work region; and a dividing means for dividing the work region in the common section.
According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, the work region arbitrarily dividing means including: a line generating means for generating an arbitrary line; a surface generating means for generating an arbitrary surface with respect to the line generated by the line generating means; a surface operating means for moving and turning the surface generated by the surface generating means; and a dividing means for dividing the work region when the surface which has been set by the surface operating means is used as a boundary surface.
According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, the workpiece shape setting means including a rectangular parallelepiped generating means for generating a rectangular parallelepiped containing the overall three-dimensional workpiece shape by the three-dimensional work shape inputted by the shape inputting means, wherein the work region extracting means extracts a work region by subtracting the three-dimensional work shape from the rectangular parallelepiped generated by the rectangular parallelepiped generating means.
According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, further comprising: a shape display means for calculating and displaying a change in the shape of the workpiece at any time when the tool is moved in accordance with the generated tool moving command data; a region correcting means for arbitrarily correcting the work region; a work order correcting means for correcting the order of work; a work information correcting means for correcting the work information; and a tool moving command data regenerating means for regenerating the tool moving command data in accordance with the corrected work order of the regions to be machined and also in accordance with the work information.
According to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a numerical control apparatus, further comprising: a shape change calculating means for calculating a change in the shape of the workpiece at any time when the tool is moved in accordance with the generated tool moving command data; a work surface height calculating means for calculating a height of the work surface in the work region next, in accordance with the shape calculated by the shape change calculating means; and a work depth calculating means for calculating the work depth of the work region to be machined next, in accordance with the shape calculated by the shape change calculating means.